


i don't even want to bite your head off

by arcanamagnus



Series: Peaceful Mode [4]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Anger Management, Business Management, Gen, bluestreak does a lot of management, not necessarily well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 16:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19254601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanamagnus/pseuds/arcanamagnus
Summary: Bluestreak has her off days, but business never sleeps, and sometimes opportunity knocks.





	i don't even want to bite your head off

Bluestreak didn't know where the anger came from, but at this point she was an expert at managing it.

It came like clockwork around the start of the quartex and had her every circuit singing with the morbid desire to claw someone's face off and drink their energon. The mental image was terrible and she oh so hated it, but she'd been dealing with it for many vorns with minimal incidents, so she knew she had the willpower not to attack the Velocitronian asking her for an ingredient swap so convoluted it made a whole new drink.

"A Coloratura, sweet all the way through?" She asked, hoping the augmented chord in her speech didn't sound condescending, "I gotta warn you that it's pretty much just six shots straight of Dulcinea, so I think you'd be better off ordering a Soubrette?"

The customer insisted on their original order despite Bluestreak's explanation that a Soubrette was literally the same as that but with an extra iodine shot to balance out the taste, so she resigned herself to trying not to squeeze the bottle into pieces as she poured the blasted drink. Oh well, at least a Coloratura made her more bank.

Maybe keeping a diner wasn't the best idea for someone who got set off as easily as Bluestreak, but she'd tried less interactive careers and that didn't really make her any less angry — in fact, she didn't think she'd ever been as ticked off as she’d been as an engineer —, and being around people was nice most of the time. Was nicer when she wasn’t as overworked and could spend her shift holding conversations with the locals, though. Success sure tasted bitter.

Bluestreak slid the glass over to them with a flourish and a smile, and swiftly switched over to the next:

"Welcome to the Jewel! What can I get ya tonight?"

The uppity-looking blue mech had a neutral, vaguely annoyed expression as she completely ignored the question:

"Can I talk to your boss?"

"I _am_ the boss," Bluestreak forced a major chord, but her secondary melodic line still clearly said _please buy something_ , "Unless you mean, like, my parents. For which you'd be, like, a heptavorn late."

"I… no, I just," she fumbled, probably a little confused, "I am here for business reasons."

Bluestreak sighed a quick _hold on_ , and called down Sunburst to cover for her for the while.

She walked this newcomer out to one of the free tables outside and steeled herself to be as chipper and peppy as she could at present.

"Sorry for the rudeness before. End of shift, you know? Got so many orders to wrangle I can’t even stop to clear my vents!” Bluestreak said as she sat down, words flowing easy — as they usually did, “I’m Bluestreak, but you probably knew that. Or maybe you didn’t, since you didn’t recognise me. Which is kinda weird. Feels like everyone knows me these days. Anyway, now for shop talk, what you got?”

“You may call me Mirage. I’m an event planner in Elonia,” she crossed her hands over the table, “One of my clients specifically asked for this restaurant to provide the buffet for her conjunx ceremony. I haven’t seen anything about you providing this kind of service, but she was very insistent so I thought I should at least try asking.”

Now that was a new one. Bluestreak had heard almost every business tip in the galaxy: paid advertising (why though? Everyone already knows), posting recipes on the internet (that was how she started. They’re _there_ already), new subsidiaries (once again, why???), _stop doing most of the work yourself_ … You know, sound business practices. But she’d never actually heard anything so feasible and not completely outside Bluestreak’s own goals — or whims, as others would describe it. This one actually made her pause her mental picking of how to divert the conversation, and _consider it_.

“I’d have to consult my staff,” she finally decided on saying, “There aren’t many of us. I might have to hire more. Also I’ve never been to Elonia? Wait, you didn’t say the ceremony will be in Elonia. Will it be in Elonia?”

“It’ll be in Crystal City, actually,” Mirage’s voice had an amused major tone to it.

“Oh, that’s nice! I studied at the Crystal City Science Institute. Graduated with honours, but it wasn’t really for me,” Bluestreak reined herself in, there was a _task_ , now was _not_ the time to get into how much she hated her short-lived academic career, “Anyway, yeah I’ll get to you later on that. Can you give me your contact information? Do you mind doing it wirelessly? Bots here in Caminus generally don’t have short range file sharing so you don’t have to worry about it.”

Mirage hesitated a bit, but sent the data either way — easily recognisable by the Elonian area code and for being the only thing in range. Bluestreak was glad she didn’t ask, because she wasn’t about to tell her that she preferred it like that because her systems were usually — and at times like this _definitely_ — too fritzy for hardline exchange. She sent her own by sending a message to Mirage’s comm line — her own short range emitters also weren’t that good.

“Thank you,” Mirage stood up, offering her hand for Bluestreak to take, “Now I suppose I owe it to you to try the Jewel’s legendary drinks.”

Bluestreak’s doors flapped, a bit embarrassed about being so incisive earlier, but took the hand and chattered Mirage’s ear off about their extensive menu of Praxian treats, hearty Camien meals, and original recipes on the way back inside. She took her place behind the counter with Sunburst, this time not really feeling the need to put on her business face.

“Well, what can I get ya?” She smiled.

“How about a Soubrette with a side of Claques?” Mirage smiled back.

That struck a chord with Bluestreak, just a little, remembering the commotion from earlier, but she let it pass. She didn’t even want to bite Mirage’s head off, so she might as well ignore whatever imagined offense her moods wanted to throw at her.

**Author's Note:**

> yes, i named everything in the menu after opera terms


End file.
